Astronauts aboard the Worldwide House Station (ISS) noticed their latest set of crewmates depart Earth right now (Sept. 21).
A Russian Soyuz rocket launched cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA’s Frank Rubio to orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this morning. The spaceflight motion was noticed by ISS astronauts zooming about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.
“We had a spectacular view of the #Soyuz launch! Sergey, Dmitry and Frank will come knocking on our door in simply a few hours … wanting ahead to welcoming them to their new residence!” European House Company (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said via Twitter today (opens in new tab), in a submit that included two photographs of the launch from on excessive.
In photographs: Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti takes Europe’s historic 1st female spacewalk
Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio did certainly come knocking quickly; their Soyuz spacecraft docked with the ISS at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT) right now, simply over three hours after launch.
Cristoforetti is a part of the ISS’ present Expedition 67, which is commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. The opposite crewmembers are cosmonauts Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, NASA’s Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins — and now Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio.
Hines posted some photographs of right now’s Soyuz launch on Twitter as nicely. “Ever surprise what a [rocket] launch appears like from space? It’s superb!!” the astronaut wrote (opens in new tab).
Artemyev will cross command to Cristoforetti subsequent week earlier than he and his crewmates return to Earth, marking the start of Expedition 68. This shall be a giant second; no European girl has ever commanded an ISS mission earlier than.
The ISS will obtain one other contemporary set of crewmates just some weeks from now, if all goes in accordance with plan. NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Company astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina are scheduled to launch to the orbiting lab on Oct. 3, on SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission for NASA.
Shortly after Crew-5 arrives, Cristoforetti, Hines, Lindgren and Watkins will depart the ISS, heading for residence aboard their very own SpaceX Dragon capsule. Their arrival again on Earth will mark the tip of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission.
Editor’s word: This story was up to date at 3:10 p.m. EDT on Sept. 21 to incorporate a tweeted photograph and feedback posted by astronaut Bob Hines.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
